Outsourcing Marketing for Maximum Results

The Client:
With clients that range from small business to Fortune 50 companies, the vetted and certified experts at Denny Cherry and Associates Consulting offer companies the opportunity to achieve HA, scalability, SQL virtualization, migration and acceleration goals reliably, while frequently finding ways to reduce their IT footprint and save on licensing costs. Their commitment to every client is the same: to provide a deft, high-speed IT environment that leverages every aspect of their platform: from architecture, to infrastructure to network.

The Challenge:

With his biggest annual trade show, Microsoft’s PASS Summit around the corner, Denny Cherry, world-renowned SQL Server guru and CEO of Denny Cherry & Associates Consulting (DCAC), realized his marketing materials were slim. The discovery snowballed into a review of all of his sales and marketing efforts.

Denny commented, “I realized I needed somebody who could focus on sales and marketing because my doing it in the 12 minutes a month I had just wasn’t going to cut it.”

Uncertain how to tackle the problem, Denny turned to his client, head of sales at another technology company to weigh the options. “I asked, do I need to hire somebody full-time? Is there a way to get somebody part-time? She sat down with me for a full 2 hours and then referred me to a marketing consultant she was using: Mayfield Consulting.”

The Solution:

Principal Anne Mayfield interviewed Denny about his needs, both immediate and long-term, while senior executives Katie Carswell and Kathleen Hannon did a comprehensive review of all DCAC marketing materials including website, online and print content, databases and distribution. The team then made their diagnosis:

Develop Branding and Messaging

Redesign the Website to Utilize that Branding

Develop Content Marketing: Case Studies, Monthly Newsletter

Begin a Press Campaign to Boost Company Visibility & Assist with SEO

Revamp Existing Sales Database

Develop Trade Show Marketing Materials

The branding and messaging was devised within a month and new flyers were printed to reflect that messaging for the trade show. The website took another three months to design, and the first case studies and press releases were released directly after launch.

Denny recalls, “We finally had branding that matched everywhere. That is a huge benefit, because it makes it easier for everyone to identify us. The total redesign of the website makes it easier for customers to navigate, easier for them to find what they’re looking for. It’s definitely helped because inquiries are going up.”

“We’d never done press releases previously and that’s helping draw more eyes onto us, too. When you search for SQL Server consultants we show up higher on the list now. There’s a lot of people in this game, so that’s a nice improvement.”

But results are what count. Have Mayfield’s efforts resulted in DCAC growing their business?

The last result was by far the most stunning for Denny. “I was really surprised when Microsoft invited us. There’s nowhere to apply for that - Microsoft has to choose you. And Managed Partners are normally large consulting companies doing huge amounts of revenue. The fact they picked a small consulting firm like us despite a vast array of choices in Southern California was a really big deal. We would not have been able to do it without Mayfield doing sales and marketing for us. The greater visibility and branding, being able to produce sales tools for Microsoft sales people and supporting sales are all key to the synergy with Microsoft.”

Denny reflects, “Mayfield offers a breadth of knowledge of all things sales and marketing. And the most valuable piece is that they can do all the sales and marketing as one cohesive package. That’s extremely valuable for a company our size: we don’t have to talk to multiple companies, deal with multiple people. We just have to talk to one person and everything happens. It’s seamless.”